Being a Real Housewife can be messy, including on camera screaming matches, legal woes and event arrests. However, there are only a few franchise stars who have actually gone to jail for their scandals.
The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City star Jen Shah began a six and a half-year prison sentence in February 2023 after pleading guilty to her role in a telemarketing scheme that defrauded hundreds of victims.
The Real Housewives of New Jersey’s Teresa Giudice, meanwhile, spent 11 months in jail after being involved in a federal fraud scheme. (Her now ex-husband Joe Giudice also served time for the crime, 41 months in prison.)
In February 2025, The Real Housewives of Potomac’s Karen Huger was sentenced to one year in jail following a 2024 DUI arrest.
Nearly one week before Thanksgiving 2025, news broke that Huger’s former costar Mia Thornton was arrested after allegedly stealing $11,000 in furniture.
Scroll down to see which Real Housewives women have been behind bars:
Teresa Giudice
Teresa and her then-husband, Joe, pleaded guilty in 2014 to 41 counts of fraud, including mail, wire and bankruptcy fraud. She served 11 months in prison for her involvement after being sentenced to 15 months. Joe, meanwhile, was sentenced to 41 months in jail. (Joe also admitted that he did not pay approximately $200,000 in taxes.)
After Joe completed his sentence, he was taken into ICE custody in March 2019 and was deported back to his native Italy that October. He has since moved to the Bahamas.
Kim Richards
The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star was arrested at the Beverly Hills Hotel in April 2015 and charged with public intoxication, trespassing and resisting an officer, Us Weekly confirmed.
Four months later, Kim was arrested for shoplifting from a Target store in San Fernando Valley, California. She was suspected of leaving the store with items costing $600. She spent one night in jail and was charged with a misdemeanor. Kim pleaded no contest for petty theft and no contest to resisting arrest. After being released on bail, Kim was hospitalized and later entered rehab in 2016.
Us confirmed in December 2017 that Kim would avoid jail time after completing her required community service for her April 2015 arrest. She was on probation until September 2018.
Tinsley Mortimer
Tinsley was arrested in April 2016 prior to starring on The Real Housewives of New York City. She was charged in Palm Beach, Florida, with trespassing at the home of her ex-boyfriend Nico Fanjul, whom she previously alleged had been abusive during their relationship.
Tinsley explained in April 2017 that she was arrested after trying to retrieve her purse from Nico’s home. According to the reality star, she and Nico fought, and the police were called to the premises. While the charges were later dropped, Tinsley did spend a few hours in jail.
“I feel like after something like getting a mugshot and having it plastered all over every paper and all over the Internet, I felt like I hit rock bottom a little bit,” Tinsley told Bravo’s Daily Dish in April 2017. “So I just felt like there was no hesitation to join the show. I was like, ‘What can go wrong at this point in my life?’ I’ve been arrested. I was in jail for three hours, I think now this is fine. I think I can handle the Real Housewives.”
Luann de Lesseps
Luann was arrested in December 2017 and charged with battery, trespassing and disorderly intoxication in Palm Beach, Florida. She spent one night in jail — infamously telling the Bravo cameras, “I’ve been traveling, I’ve been to prison” — before her release. The Real Housewives of New York City alum accepted a plea deal in August 2018 after completing two rehab treatments.
Us confirmed in May 2019 that Luann confessed to drinking after her second rehab stint after an alcohol test was conducted in April 2019 by a New York probation officer. When Luann declined the “opportunity to immediately enroll in outpatient treatment” because her relapse happened amid her Countess and Friends cabaret tour, a judge ordered her back to jail for violating her probation.
Luann agreed to a plea deal hours later, which included weekly phone sessions with her treating psychiatrist as well as monthly in-person sessions and keeping a “breathalyzer monitoring device” with her. After accepting the new probation terms — which included taking an alcoholism medication prescribed by doctors — she was released from the Palm Beach Sheriff’s Office.
Porsha Williams
The Real Housewives of Atlanta star was arrested in July 2020 alongside 86 others after protesting Breonna Taylor’s death in Louisville. (Taylor was fatally shot earlier that year after police came into her home with a no-knock warrant and had the wrong address. She was 26.)
Williams was booked and held in jail with no bond. Williams was charged with felony intimidating a participant in a legal process, disorderly conduct in the second degree and criminal trespassing. The felony charge was later dropped and Williams didn’t serve jail time.
Williams was previously arrested in April 2014 when she turned herself in to the Fulton County Sheriff. At the time, she was booked and released on a simple battery misdemeanor charge after getting into a fight with Kenya Moore during season 6 of RHOA. She paid $2,000 bail in cash.
Jen Shah
Jen was arrested in March 2021 along with her assistant Stuart Smith for their alleged role in a nationwide telemarketing scheme. Jen and Stuart were booked on charges of conspiracy to commit wire fraud in connection with telemarketing and conspiracy to commit money laundering.
The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City star changed her plea in July 2022 from not guilty to guilty, which cut 20 years off of her maximum prison sentence. She was sentenced in January 2023 to six and half years in prison and five years of supervised release.
Jen’s prison sentence was reduced for a second time in January 2025 and she was released at the end of the year.
Karen Huger
Karen was involved in a March 2024 car accident that led to her being charged with a DUI and DWI negligently driving a vehicle in a careless and imprudent manner endangering property, life, and person, as well as recklessly driving a vehicle. She was found guilty in December 2024 on all the charges except for reckless driving.
In February 2025, she was sentenced to one year in jail after initially facing two years behind bars since it wasn’t her first DUI offense. Karen’s official sentence is two years in jail with one year suspended, meaning she only has to serve one year. (She was later released in September 2025.)
Mia Thornton
Mia Thornton Charles Sykes/Bravo
The former Real Housewives of Potomac star was arrested in Atlanta on November 19, 2025, according to jail records viewed by Us Weekly.
A police report viewed by Us claims that Mia allegedly stole furniture worth over $11,000 from a condo she had been renting in Atlanta. Items allegedly included radios, TVs, DVD players and other goods.
The former Bravo star later tearfully revealed in bodycam footage that she was aware there was a warrant out for her arrest. (Us reached out to Mia for comment at the time of her arrest.)
Wendy Osefo
Wendy Osefo Clifton Prescod/Bravo
The Real Housewives of Potomac star and her husband, Eddie Osefo, were arrested and booked on fraud charges on October 9, 2025.
According to police, the couple claimed designer bags and jewelry were missing from their bedroom during a reported burglary in April 2024. Wendy, however, was allegedly seen wearing one of the stolen diamond rings in a later social media post.
A police investigation determined that other items they claimed were stolen had been purchased and returned to their respective stores “where a full refund was provided prior to the alleged burglary.”
“The Osefos, alongside their legal team, look forward to their day in court,” a rep for the couple told Us one day after the arrest. “At this time, they respectfully ask for privacy as they focus on their family and the legal process ahead.”
One month later, Wendy addressed her legal drama while attending BravoCon 2025 in Las Vegas. “It’s an unfortunate situation, and right now I can’t say too much, but I will say when the time is right, I will share my story with everyone, and for now they’re just allegations, so we will continue to push forward,” she told attendees during a panel.
